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There's a video series of a guy who tried to do this in California in the middle of a desert and his cost went north of $100k. (Paperwork alone was $25k IIRC).
by Jagat 7y ago
There's a video series of a guy who tried to do this in California in the middle of a desert and his cost went north of $100k. (Paperwork alone was $25k IIRC).
Watching that series reminds you of what a huge bureaucratic nightmare looks like.
Search for "Modern home project" on YouTube.
- sixdimensional 7y agoI almost started a tiny home business. However, during market research, I discovered the biggest problem with tiny homes is zoning laws. That really threw a monkey wrench into my plans. Have been considering what it would take to get zoning laws preventing tiny homes changed in less popular locales.
- davidw 7y ago> Have been considering what it would take to get zoning laws preventing tiny homes changed in less popular locales. Statewide legislation is probably the way to go. Doing it city by city is a huge slog, and I don't think anything's likely to happen nationwide for a while (but who knows). Network with like-minded people: * YIMBY groups in your area * Strong Towns: https://www.strongtowns.org/ https://www.strongtowns.org/
- erentz 7y ago+ Example of such a statewide legislation: https://www.curbed.com/2019/7/1/20677502/oregon-yimby-single-family-zoning-nimby-rent-control https://www.curbed.com/2019/7/1/20677502/oregon-yimby-single...
- davidw 7y agoI pushed hard for that one... we turned up 5 YIMBYs in our not-so-big town on a Friday morning to talk with our state representative, and had a lot of people put in calls to our state senator - both Republicans who ended up voting in favor.
- mjevans 7y agoYou'd probably have better luck subverting existing regulatory infrastructure that closely matches your use-case. Instead of tiny homes, try thinking within the regulatory box of "classifies as an RV or towed camper". That might allow you to bypass some of the other limitations you were facing.
- AJ007 7y agoReminds me of the Tesla tent assembly line.
- abraae 7y agoAround here, you would try and classify your tiny dwelling as "transportable". This means having it sitting on, rather than attached to, the ground, and having some "skids" on the piles.
- PorterDuff 7y agoExactly. There was a Kirsten Dirksen video showing some cabins built on a piece of property that was zoned (I think) for mobile homes. Voila', they welded some big wheels on the bottom of the structures. They still seemed poorly laid out with crummy bathrooms (in this case, no piped water and a terlet that was basically an indoor plastic porta-potty) but I did admire the law-skirting. There can also be avoidance of property taxes in some states I believe.
- sixdimensional 7y agoThere are definitely places where this works, which is what I think in part lead to the building of most tiny homes on a wheeled, towable chassis. Of course, that limits you though into building that class of tiny home, and I personally feel that smaller but more permanent tiny homes with a foundation/slab are still a very economical, usable and viable solution. You're right though, I think the key to making this work without trying to get laws changed is finding the right combination of laws and solution/use case that remains within the regulations. This is definitely doable in certain locales and not in others. If I'm really going to make what I wanted to do work, I will have to find the right balance of factors. I was so surprised when I started reading zoning rules for plots of land that I was looking at to build a tiny house - some had minimum home size requirements, others had explicitly outlawed the use of any such wheeled dwelling precisely to prevent people from doing what you said. Some of the larger plots of land that were quite inexpensive required a 2,000sqft and up dwelling to be built if they were purchased and used for residential purposes!
- WalterBright 7y agoAround here remodeling projects have less regulation than building a new home. You'll often see a house torn down except for one wall, then a new house is built incorporating that wall. That way it is classified as a "remodel".
- 0xfeba 7y agoI love edge cases like these. I wonder if there's a collection of them somewhere.
- eplanit 7y agoYou might try Oregon[1]. [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/737798440/oregon-legislature-votes-to-essentially-ban-single-family-zoning https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/737798440/oregon-legislature-...
- sixdimensional 7y agoI do like Oregon! Thanks for sharing this link, this is good to know.
- PorterDuff 7y agoIf it's the house I was watching, the amount of house infrastructure within the house cracked me up. A house in a house, full slab, plus the inevitable California fire suppression system. It wasn't even that cool looking. But...I really liked the idea of the above ground septic drain field.
- im3w1l 7y agoI guess it must be because houses are so expensive so people go "what's another $25k?" and costs are allowed to drift upwards? Really crazy that it's that bad.
- Jagat 7y agoFor those wondering, here's the first part of the series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA5fh29rhLs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA5fh29rhLs